


Through the Looking Glass

by VictoriaAGrey



Category: Walking Dead, Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Accidental Outing, Daryl becomes hyper-protective of Rick after Terminus, Love, Lust, M/M, Misunderstandings, Rick gets the right message. Bless him., Tara gets the wrong message... sorta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 19:31:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1911006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriaAGrey/pseuds/VictoriaAGrey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tara accidentally outs Daryl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

> For ampkiss, who wanted a fic where Tara outs Daryl. I hope this quenches your need lady! Cheers!

The group did not escape Terminus entirely unscathed. Everyone was sporting new bruises and scars. Eugene had gotten an arrow through the arm, sending Abraham on a rampage that nearly got himself killed. Maggie broke her wrist in a scuffle with Mary before Tara had been able to kill her. However, it was Rick who had received the most life-threatening injury.

Thanks to him leading the charge out of the boxcar, he was first in the line of fire. Leaping onto the man who came to give them their rations, he had barely been able to wrestle the machine gun out of his hands before shots rang out across the yard. Rick laid down cover fire for the others so they could get to the back of the boxcar and retrieve the weapons that Carol and Tyreese had hidden the previous night, having alerted them to the package and their presence in Morse code through the cold iron of their cage. Coming back around the side of the boxcar with a handgun to eliminate the immediate threats before getting the hell out of there, Daryl’s heart dropped when he saw Rick fly backwards and onto his back.

Fearing the worst, Daryl shot with impunity at anybody and everybody he didn’t recognize as he made his way towards him. By the time he got to his side, Rick was already shuffling himself into a sitting position as he took aim, one armed, at gas tanks lined against a wall of one of the complex’s many buildings. Screams and more gunshots colored the air as bright flames lit up the night.

_Injured and aiming with one hand, he’s still a better shot than the rest of us._

Daryl didn’t wait for Rick’s permission as he grabbed him under his right arm and yanked him up into standing position. His imbalanced sway as he stood worried Daryl – _blood loss could be the cause_ – so he wrapped Rick’s arm around his shoulders and placed his own arm around Rick’s waist to lead him out of Terminus and into the woods. Seeing Carol alive with Tyreese and baby Judith was like a drink of cold water on a hot summer day, but the reunion was short lived; Rick’s gunshot wound taking precedence over relieved greetings.

Over the following week, the group started getting to know its new members. Abraham seemed smart enough, but his personality was abrasive and domineering, unsettling to Daryl’s nerves. Rosita was helpful and acted as a sort of mediator between Abraham and whoever he managed to piss off. Eugene was a dumbass that Daryl felt wasn’t nearly as intelligent as he claimed to be. Tara was quiet, with the obvious exception of when she tried to start conversations with him that would always end with him making a remark about how he had to go check on Rick. Daryl was baffled by why she would gravitate towards him, initially thinking she was hitting on him until one day she and Abraham started talking about women they had been with before The Turn. Relieved that she wasn’t trying to get with him, he figured that her motive had just been curiosity and he stopped worrying about it.

Rick’s health improved faster than it had any right to, or he was lying about it; Daryl figuring it was a mixture of both. Carol had been able to extract the bullet from his shoulder and stitch up the wound easily. There was always the worry of infection and Daryl lied to himself that that was the main reason he didn’t allow Rick out of his sight for more than five minutes at a time. But he knew the truth. Finding out Rick was alive to only come close to losing him twice within the following forty-eight hours made him paranoid. Like if he didn’t glue himself to his side he would disappear and die for sure this time. Daryl lamented the pitfalls of being in love, but stopped trying to deny the actions it motivated in him.

When Rick started to get antsy about “not doing anythang besides sittin’ on my ass all day,” Daryl agreed to go with him to check a few houses in the neighborhood they were staying in under the condition that he let him know if he started to feel unwell. The search turned up a wealth of supplies due to one house having a hidden basement and both returned to the group happier than they’d been when they had left.

During dinner, everyone gathered in the dining room to eat and talk. Rather than branching off into pairs or smaller groups for conversation, the group at large was talking to the newcomers, still wanting to know more about them. Come Tara’s turn, she spoke of losing her girlfriend in the battle at the prison. Daryl could feel Rick grow cold beside him at the mention of her being a part of The Governor’s group, but he remained quiet.

“My girlfriend, she had been in the military before all this. She said she would find me when it was over and I never, even for one second, thought she would die.”

“Sorry for yer loss,” Daryl replied, feeling compelled to say something. They had all lost someone. It was important for her to not feel alone.

“Thanks,” Tara said with a small smile of acknowledgement. “What with everything that happened, I’m just glad that you didn’t lose your Rick.”

_“Your Rick?” Is she... she... she thinks we’re together....................?_

“Huh?”

“You and Rick. Aren’t you, you know, together?”

“N- n- no. We ain’t like that!”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Tara awkwardly apologized as she shifted in her seat. “I just thought you were since you’re always together and you’re... well, you are, you know...? Aren’t you?”

_Oh fucking hell. She’s calling me out. She can tell I’m gay!? HOW!? Do I have some neon sign on my forehead that only other gays can read!? That must be why she’s always trying to talk to me! She wants to talk to someone she relates to. Fuck!_

Daryl felt as if he were trapped in a tunnel with Tara being the only thing he saw. She was starting to look distressed, likely figuring out that he had not come out to the group and, worst of all, had voiced what he wanted to be with Rick and wasn’t. A cold sweat broke out on his neck and he began to feel exceedingly claustrophobic, the need to get out of the room as fast as possible being all he could focus on.

“We ain’t like that. And why tha hell is no one on watch!?” Daryl questioned to no one in particular as he shoved his chair back with too much force so he could leave. “I got it.”

“Jesus! Daryl, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean - ” was all Daryl caught of Tara calling after him as he grabbed his crossbow and walked out the front door into the crisp winter air. Electing to sit on a low hanging branch of a large oak in the front yard, he slung the crossbow across his back and climbed. It had been a long time since he had climbed a tree and he felt both nostalgic and safe.

_Why am I not mad at Tara? I want to be mad at her. She outed me without permission. But it’s not like she knew I wasn’t out. I’ve never been out. I haven’t really been with anyone except for a few drunken hook ups. There was no need. Not to mention Merle would have killed me. They won’t kill me, but they won’t look at me the same. They’ll think I’m different. Weird. Freakish._

“Daryl, get down from there.”

_Rick. Fuck. Literally the last person I want to see right now. I can take the others looking at me different, but not him._

“Please? We need to talk.”

_Nope. I’m staying up here for the foreseeable future. That could be years._

“That whole “ignore them and they’ll go away” routine doesn’t work on me, Daryl. One of two things is gonna happen. You either come down here and talk to me or I climb the tree and you talk to me. And don’t think I won’t do it either. I may rip my stitches on the way up and die from blood loss, but I’ll do what I gotta do. Choice is yours.”

_Goddamn it! Motherfucker is crazy enough to do it, too. I don’t doubt that. Can’t he just let this all go and we can pretend it never happened?_

“Alright, I’m comin’ up.”

“Son of a bitch,” Daryl grunted as he moved to climb down the tree to save Rick from being a dumbass. Dropping down to the ground from his branch, he stood in front of Rick, who was leaning leisurely against the tree as if there was no place else he’d rather be. Daryl couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact.

“We _are_ always together. It was only a matter of time before somebody made a joke about us _being_ together.”

“The way she said it. It wasn’t no joke,” he mumbled in response.

“I know. And that’s what’s bothering you,” Rick acknowledged. He remained silent for several measured heartbeats, before softly saying, “You know it doesn’t bother me that you’re gay.”

Startled out of his own quiet, Daryl looked up at Rick who was looking at him... like he always did. “Ya knew?”

Rick lightly nodded. “Yeah. Have for awhile.”

_He’s known for awhile and I never knew. So it didn’t change his opinion of me. Honorable. No wonder I love him. Can’t have the others suspecting anything, though. Maybe I should pull back from him a little. Alleviate suspicion. Don’t want him to get uncomfortable._

“I know that look. Nothing has to change... unless you want it to.”

_You really should learn to choose your words more wisely._

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means what I said. If you want things to change, they can. But that’s up to you to decide.”

_Of course I want things to change. I want more, but I can’t have that. Can I? He can’t mean that, too, can he?_

“Rick, yer not like that.”

Feeling self-conscious since he had just basically confessed to wanting him, Daryl looked at Rick, not wanting to look spineless in the face of his own admission. Instead of finding understanding, he saw Rick’s expression subtly alter. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he did to make that happen, but he registered what it meant as easily as one could a punch to the gut.

_Lust._

In a state of abject horror at how aroused he was from one look, Daryl watched helplessly as Rick upped the ante by slowly trailing his eyes up his body, starting at his feet and ending at his face. The look in his eyes was salacious, dirty, and Daryl felt his blood pressure spike.  Daryl read everything Rick wanted him to in that look. It was reciprocated need, consent, and above all, it was a challenge.

_It’s up to me to make things change._

Taking a tentative step forward, Daryl watched Rick for any adverse reaction to the movement, but found none. Assured that he wasn’t delusional about Rick’s desire, Daryl willed his heavy, nervous legs to close the distance between them. Now appreciating what it meant to have butterflies in his stomach, he reached out a lightly trembling hand to take one of Rick’s curls between his fingers. It was soft, the thick hair bouncing back into place after a gentle pull. Daryl had always had an affinity for Rick’s curls. They softened his appearance even when he was at his harshest. A hint of humanity in a man who had spent much of their first months together attempting to hide it.

Trailing his fingers out of his hair and across his jaw, he brushed the pads of his fingers through Rick’s beard, which was peppered with far more gray than it had been even a few months ago. The coarse hair felt forbidden against the ridges of his fingertips, like he was touching something he wasn’t supposed to, but did anyway. It was an addictive sensation and Daryl allowed that feeling to carry his index and middle fingers to Rick’s full lips. They were parted and he could feel Rick’s breath skitter across his skin. His lips felt plush, like a firm pillow, and Daryl was overcome with the need to feel them against his own. Before he dared to do so, he looked into Rick’s eyes for a hint of caution, any sign that he should stop while he was ahead, and found more than lust glittering in his moonlit pale blue eyes. Not quite ready to comprehend what it meant, he closed his eyes and kissed Rick.

No hesitation was found in the returned pressure of Rick’s lips. The kiss was simple, chaste in a way that was completely at odds with the way he had been looking at him, but Daryl didn’t want it any other way. It was meant to act as a show of affection, love, and Daryl didn’t want to ruin it by pressing forward, drowning the sweetness with raw, basic instinct, no matter how much his body pleaded with him to. Pulling his lips away from Rick’s, he kept his eyes closed and rested his forehead against his, enjoying the feeling of Rick’s hands resting on his waist.

_He has to know I love him now. Nobody who just wants somebody kisses like that. Maybe he loves me, too._

“I want things to change.”

“I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> This acted as a great break from writing part four of the Sine Metu Vive series. Just to clarify, this fic is not related to that universe. And yes, I'm still writing that monster.
> 
> As always, come at me on my Tumblr, [mycroft-silently-judges-you](http://mycroft-silently-judges-you.tumblr.com)!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
